


One Day, We Will Be Remembered

by NoirAngel011



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, F/F, Give Mara a Hug, I wanted to call Light Hope Luz Hope so bad, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, but I refrained, so it's Lilly Hope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:47:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoirAngel011/pseuds/NoirAngel011
Summary: The smiles were always real. She made sure that they were always genuine, but Mara’s having a lot harder of a time to find things to smile about these days.Or, how Mara suffers from her parents' abuse and what that does to her mentally.The first in a trilogy of stories of stories focused on Mara and Light Hope in a human AU. Not taking place in the same world as The Last Great Rebels, but a similar one.
Relationships: Light Hope/Mara (She-Ra)
Kudos: 5





	One Day, We Will Be Remembered

**Author's Note:**

> The urge to call Light Hope Luz Hope was strong with this one. Instead, I made Mara’s middle name Luz.
> 
> The title comes from Long Live by Taylor Swift. May girls are Swifties because I'm a Swiftie.

It started in the sixth grade, when she met Hope.

Lilly Hope was a pretty blonde girl with the most striking blue eyes Mara had ever seen. She put streaks of purples and blues and pinks in her hair and Mara found herself staring sometimes in the classes they shared. She was gorgeous. She radiated confidence and Mara knew she could ever be friends with someone like her.

Nobody wanted to be friends with boring little Mara with two french braids in boring brown and boring gray eyes.

But Lilly Hope sought her out. She didn’t know why, but they quickly became friends. Mara didn’t realize it, but she would blush whenever the blonde was around and always felt butterflies fly up in her stomach.

They somehow hit it off. They both loved Taylor Swift and drawing and bonded over study sessions where they would dramatically sing using hairbrushes as microphones rather than do their homework. Mara was the only person who could call Lilly just Hope.

Mara knew that she was a sweet kid. People told her and her parents all the time how sweet she was. How nice her smile was. How kind her heart was. Mara never understood how somebody couldn’t be nice. Maybe it was just in her nature to spread kindness without having to be told. At least the teachers liked her for it.

But her parents didn’t like her nature. Her parents didn’t like her. And they especially didn’t like Lilly Hope.

They told her she needed to grow up. Her mother tugged her hair out of her braids and made her wear it down, long and even more boring than before. Her father forced her into jeans and t-shirts because he said that her skirts and tank tops were too provocative. 

Mara returned to school after Christmas break in a pair of black skinny jeans and a t-shirt for a band she didn’t listen to. She was wearing her long brown hair down instead of her normal twin braids. She just put in her earbuds and blasted Taylor Swift until she couldn’t hear anything anymore as she walked into school with her head down. Lilly Hope immediately noticed.

She grabbed her arm and dragged her into the bathroom, startling Mara.

“Whaa?” she pulled her earbuds out but wouldn’t meet Hope’s eyes.

“What the hell is this?” Even at eleven years old, Mara had found that Hope swore a lot. Mara couldn’t remember a time she had ever said a curse word in her young life, but Hope said them all the time.

“What is what?” Mara chose to play dumb, but she knew what Lilly Hope was asking.

“This!” Hope gestured to Mara’s hair and outfit. She looked down at herself.

“Just thought to try something new,” Mara said, though there was a sad tone in her voice. Lilly’s brow furrowed.

“That’s not what’s happening here, but if you don’t wanna tell me, I won’t press. At least let me hug you though,” Lilly Hope said, pulling Mara into a hug as they stood in the entryway bathroom that was surprisingly empty. Mara let her, leaning into the hug. It felt nice to have someone care about her.

The bell rang and they had to part to get to homeroom, but Mara let Hope hold her hand as they left the bathroom.

Neither girl had any idea that the change of hair and clothes was only the beginning. 

…

Things only seemed to get harder for Mara once the summer began.

Mara’s mother would grab her arm and shove her away if she got close. Her father would yell at her, call her horrible things, if she ever messed up anything.

Mara took to hiding in her room, away from her parents. They had taken away the lock on her door, but as long as they wanted nothing to do with her, she was okay.

By the time school started again, everything got even worse

They were downstairs, fighting and yelling. Mara couldn’t make out the words, but she wanted them to stop. It was late. She had school the next day.

She slid in her earbuds, scrolling through her comfort playlist. Lilly Hope had made it for her. It was full of all their favorite songs.

When things got hard, listening to it to drown out the screaming and her own sobs helped her fall asleep.

Mara heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She pulled the covers up over her head and bit her hand to stop her crying. Her door was flung open.

“Get up, bitch,” Her father said. Mara trembled, but took out her earbuds and hid them under her pillow and pulled the covers off from over her head.

“What’s going on?” She asked. She was so tired and just wanted to sleep. She hadn’t slept in three days and it was hard to get through school on no sleep.

She didn’t get an answer, just a slap across the face. Mara felt tears falling down her face despite her best efforts. She raised a hand to the burning mark on her face.

He grabbed her hair and pulled her off her bed. Mara screamed.

“Let me go!” She tried to kick his shin but couldn’t do much. Her small frame was no match for her father’s large and bulky one.

He dropped her and pushed her into her bed frame. She felt her head bang against it and wet blood roll down from a gash behind her hairline. Mara fell to the floor.

Her father left her bedroom after that, leaving her on the floor, bleeding and shaking and crying. He left her door open, letting light from the hallway stream in. It illuminated Mara laying at the end of her bed on the floor, blood on the white bedpost from where she hit it.

She passed out a few minutes later. She didn’t know if it was from exhaustion or her injury.

…

The next day and Mara was rushing to get to school earlier than all the other students.

She was the third one in the building thankfully. She rushed into the entryway bathroom and pulled a small toiletry case from her backpack.

She stared at herself in the mirror. There was a harsh read mark on her cheek and a cut on her forehead she needed to cover. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and there were tear tracks on her face. She wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, trying to dry it.

She pulled a tube of concealer from the toiletry bag, starting to cover the marks on her face. She didn’t realize that she had started crying again, despite her best efforts until the bathroom door opened.

Mara went rigid, pulling her hood up over her head and snapping her chin down so anybody behind her couldn’t look into the mirror and see her face.

“Mara?”    
Of course. Of course it would be Lilly Hope to find her.

“Mara, what’s wrong?” Hope walked up behind her and rested her hands on Mara’s shoulders. Mara didn’t push her away. “Come on, Mara. Just tell me what’s going on so I can help. I’m not gonna tell anyone. Your secrets are safe with me.” 

“I’m fine, Hope.” Hope started to gently rub her upper arm and Mara broke.

She lifted her face so Lilly Hope could see it in the mirror. She cringed as Hope gasped.

“Oh, Mara. It’s okay, let’s get this fixed.” Mara was surprised at how Hope could manage to keep a straight head as she grabbed her chin gently and wiped away what Mara had done with the concealer.

“You’re going about this wrong. You need green and yellow to neutralize the color of the bruise.” Hope pulled out an eyeshadow palette from her own bag.

“Why do you even have that?” Mara asked, sniffling.

“Irrelevant.” Hope winked. Mara gave her a strange look.

Hope began to use the eyeshadow over the bruise and cut to neutralize them, then applied the concealer over it. She used brown and gold eyeshadow from her palette on Mara’s eyes to make it look like she hadn’t been crying. She made her put on some clear mascara to make it look like she wasn’t running off an hour of sleep.

“I don’t know what happened, but if you ever need somewhere safe to go, my door is always open,” Hope said, hugging Mara from behind. Mara nodded.

“Let’s get to class now.” Mara changed the subject. Hope nodded solemnly.

The two girls walked hand in hand to class, Mara with her head down and Hope with a worried expression on her face.

…

Mara’s smile had been a fixture in Hope’s life since the sixth grade.

It was bright and contagious. When Mara smiled, Hope smiled.

But just a month after the start of seventh grade, she noticed that she didn’t see it as much. She didn’t watch her beam, hear her laugh, or feel rooms light up as Mara walked in with a smile on her face.

It felt… lonely.

Like, Mara was there, physically. She sat next to her in homeroom and at lunch and they talked, but it felt like Mara wasn’t actually present for their conversations. She was always far away, lost in her own mind.

Hope hardly saw the Mara she had met anymore.

The two rode the bus home every day that year. More days than not, Mara would nap on her shoulder. Hope would wrap her arm around Mara and let her sleep. She always hated having to wake her up just before they got to her stop. Sometimes, she would decide that Mara was going to hang out at her place for the afternoon just so Mara could sleep an extra five minutes. 

She knew that Mara wasn’t sleeping well at home, that much was obvious. She was always tired. Most days, Hope would have to brush Mara’s hair for her in homeroom because she hadn’t that morning.

Hope didn’t know what to do for Mara. She wouldn’t tell her what was happening, just said that she had it under control.

It was one of Mara’s naps on the bus that she was pondering these feelings. She was staring out the window, lost in thought. Mara was sitting between her and the window, but that was okay. Hope liked to shield her from the other kids on the bus. People who slept on the ride home were looked down upon by eighth-graders, but Hope knew Mara needed the sleep desperately, even if it was only thirty minutes.

“Hope?” Mara asked, waking up. Hope looked down at her.

“Yeah?”

“Why do you hang around me still? I thought you would have gotten tired of me by now.” Mara sat up from her shoulder, looking down at the floor of the bus.

“I hang out with you because you’re my best friend, silly.” Hope reached over and took a few pieces of Mara’s long hair, starting to braid them together. It was a small little braid, but it put a smile on Mara’s face.    
Mara looked at her and Hope realized that her eyes were shining. She hadn’t looked actually happy in months. 

Hope found herself smiling too.

...

Mara’s parents were hosting Thanksgiving this year. She didn’t know why, but she wasn’t really complaining. She loved Thanksgiving.

Cooking and baking were her favorite things to do, and that was all Thanksgiving was. Grandma Razz had taught her to bake all sorts of different pies and cook a variety of vegetables and meats over the years. The adults usually just let the two of them cook dinner. Mara always tried to top herself year after year.

Everyone was in the living room when it all went to shit.

To get to the formal dining room from the kitchen, you had to walk through the main living room. Mara was carrying the first pitcher of cider they had made out of three through when Adora and Adam ran past, the twins racing in front of her and causing Mara to lose her balance.

She tried her best not to fall, but Adam tripped her and the next thing she knew she was on the floor, hot cider touching every bit of exposed skin.

Everyone in the room fell deadly silent while Mara struggled not to cry out from the pain of the burns. 

The white carpet was stained orange. That was what her mother chose to focus on, rather than the fact that her child was covered in burn marks now.

She grabbed Mara and pulled her to her feet, beginning to scream at her. Mara started to cry as her mother held her by her arm and hair.

“Look at this mess! That you caused! You horrible child, nobody should trust you with anything!” Her father came over and began to yell at her as well.

Suddenly, they were both pushed away from Mara.

Her Aunt Marlena was standing there. She carefully pulled Mara into her side.

“It was clearly an accident caused by Adam and Adora. If you had been paying attention and not just looking for a reason to yell at Mara, you would have seen that!” Marlena led Mara out of the room and to the downstairs bathroom.

“Here sweetie, a cold shower will make it stop hurting as bad,” Marlena said, turning on the cold water. Mara just cried. 

Marlena was gentle with the thirteen-year-old, helping her strip down to her underwear then helping her try to soothe the burns. Marlena looked confused at the other marks that covered Mara’s body, ranging from bruises to cuts and scars, but she didn’t say anything. 

She found some burn cream in a first aid kit and applied it to all the hurt spots for Mara.

“It hurts,” Mara whimpered.

“I know it does. I know. Just try to focus on something else.” Marlena stroked her now wet hair.

“It was all my fault. I should have been more careful,” Mara said. Marlena shook her head.

“No sweetie. Adam and Adora weren’t watching where they were running. They were the ones who needed to be more careful. You were tripped and fell trying not to let them get hurt. Your parents yelling at you wasn’t okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Marlena pulled Mara into a hug. 

Dinner was good, but it wasn't as lively as it normally was. Mara could hardly even enjoy her and Grandma’s Razz’s cooking because of the pain she was in. Her parents kept sending glares at her Aunt and Uncle, who had sat Mara between them, with a twin on either side of her.

Mara just wished that she was anywhere but there.

…

Mara didn’t go back to school after Fall Break for a whole week.

Aunt Marlena insisted that she wait until her burns were healed before she returned to school. Her parents had said no, but Marlena was persistent, and in the end brought Mara to stay with her family until she was healed. She stayed in the guest bedroom most of the time, feeling guilty for invading on their personal space.

Aunt Marlena came into her room that Friday while Adam and Adora were at school.

“Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?” she asked, shutting the door behind her.

“Better. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” Mara crossed her arms over her chest.

“That’s good. That’s good. But there’s something we need to talk about.” Mara looked up.

“What’s that? Did I do something wrong?!” Mara got a look of fear in her eyes and leaned back away from her aunt.

“No, Mara. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Marlena laughed. Mara nodded wearily. “It’s something else. We need to talk about the bruises. They’re all over your body. I didn’t want to say anything until your burns were better, but it needs to be talked about. You’re a good kid, I know you aren’t going around and getting into fights.” Marlena carefully rested her hand on the side of Mara’s face, stroking her thumb along her cheek. “So who’s hurting you?”

Mara contemplated her answer. She didn’t lie to anyone, that’s not the kind of person she was. She wasn’t opposed to omitting the truth from them though. But she knew that she would get in trouble if she told anyone what was happening to her at home, and she didn’t want more punishment. 

“Mara, it shouldn’t be something to ponder. It’s a simple question. You know who’s doing this to you, just tell me. I need to know. For your safety.” Mara felt tears spring up in her eyes.

“Mother and Father…” she said, voice barely above a whisper. Marlena pulled her into a hug. 

“I thought so, but I needed to be sure. It’s okay now though. You aren’t going to go back to them.” Mara was taken aback.

“I’m not?” Mara crossed her fingers, hoping that this wasn’t all some twisted dream.

“No, you aren’t. You’ll stay here with us.”

Mara let the tears fall, melting into the hug. She didn’t know how long she cried, but it felt so good to get it all out.

…

“Hope!” Mara exclaimed, running up to her best friend. 

Hope spun around, her face lighting up.

“Mara!” She grabbed Mara into a hug, pulling her close.

It was Mara’s first day back at school and the first time the two had seen each other in two weeks. 

Hope pulled back to inspect Mara. You could still see some of her burns, but they didn’t hurt anymore. Most noticeably was how Mara was wearing her hair. It was done up in a crown braid. Hope reached over and brushed Mara’s bangs to the side to get a better look at her.

“Your hair!” She smiled. Mara nodded, bouncing on her heels.

“My hair!” Mara pointed at the braid. Hope’s eyes floated to a burn on her neck.

“What happened to you?” She asked, moving her hand to graze her thumb lightly over the top of the mark.

“Oh, I dropped a canister of hot cider and spilled it all over myself,” Mara said as if it was just another Tuesday for her.

Hope laughed.

“You’re an idiot, Mara Grayskull.”

Mara laughed with her.

“Yeah, I am. But I’m okay with that, because I’m your idiot.” 

Hope took the earbuds that had been hanging around her neck and passed one to Mara. Mara took it and popped it into her left ear while Hope did the same with the right bud.   
Hope grabbed Mara’s hand, and together they walked to home room, sharing gossip and smiling the whole way while  _ Long Live  _ played as a background track.

...

Their court date didn’t come until the summer after seventh grade. 

Her parents were adamant that they weren’t abusing her and that she was lying about the whole thing. For some reason, this couldn’t just be a cut and dry case. They had all the evidence, it was obvious that they were hurting her.

But here they were, going to court.

Mara held Hope’s hand tightly in hers as they sat down. She was terrified. This would be the first time she had seen her parents since Thanksgiving.

Adora sat down next to Mara and pressed up against her side, snaking her arm around her waist. Mara smiled at her, using a hand to play with the end of one of her braids that she had begun wearing again. She fiddled with the hem of her skirt, played with her hair, and messed with her nails, doing anything she could to keep herself from screaming. She didn’t want to be where she was.

The trial started and Mara held her breath. She laid her head against Hope’s, who squeezed her hand in support.

Thankfully, her parent’s lawyer was terrible at his job. The trial was over in an hour and a half. Once her Aunt and Uncle’s lawyer presented all the evidence, the jury made their decision and full custody of Mara was rewarded to Marlena and Roger.

Once they had gotten outside, everyone threw their arms around Mara. For the first time in almost a year, Mara finally smiled.


End file.
